Harpers Ferry in November 1860

These two reports from November 1860 use John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry to argue that a federal arsenal in Fayetteville, North Carolina had to protected, but not in the way that one might expect. Rather than have the local militia continue to provide protection, some Fayetteville residents asked the War Department to send soldiers. While some objected that “local authorities [had] to protect government property at their own expense,” the Fayetteville Observer explained that “the chief inducement…was to negative any idea of a John Brown raid here.” The presence of a US Army company from New York apparently did not cause any serious problems. “So far from irritating the public mind,” the Fayetteville Observer noted that “[their presence] has very materially quieted the public mind here.”